Little League Baseball: Braves win 10-inning battle

Steve Virgen

NEWPORT BEACH - After 10 innings, 30 runs, 34 hits and three and

half hours of baseball, the Braves survived the marathon with an emphatic

17-14 victory over the Dodgers, in a Majors division game of the Newport

Beach Little League Saturday at Lincoln Elementary.

The Braves (1-5) scored four runs in the top of the 10th inning when they gained one unearned run and Taormina, Koss and Rangell collected one

RBI each.

David Wheatley helped give the Braves their first win of the season

when he struck out three straight Dodgers for the win.

“They never let up throughout the whole game,” Braves’ Manager Mike

Harms said. “When we went down, we always came back. It was a complete

team effort. Every player did something to contribute to the win.”

The Dodgers (3-3) went the distance without any substitutes as they

were missing three players because of an injury, a basketball playoff

game and one went on vacation. As if the Dodgers weren’t against the

odds. They had lost an 11-inning game Thursday.

Dodger Kyle Johnson threw 99 pitches in his debut, serving duty in

innings six through nine for the Dodgers. Ryan Austin also had to pitch

for the first time because of the lack of players.

“It’s fun (to be in a game like that),” Johnson said. “But, it can be

sort of tiring.”

Said the Braves’ Brett Hanrahan, “Everyone was really happy when the

game was over ... and everyone was tired.”

Hanrahan smacked a double that hit the left field fence in the third

inning when the Braves scored two runs to pull to within 4-2.

The Braves exploded for seven runs in the fourth, but the Dodgers

responded with five runs in the fifth inning. The game went into extra

innings as the teams exchanged a pair of runs in each of innings eight

and nine.

Several heroes evolved from the long battle as both teams pounded out

17 hits. Wheatley went 2 for 3 with one stolen base, while Jordan

Taormina and Jake Rangell each had three hits and two RBIs.

For the Dodgers, Austin went 5 for 6, including a triple. Allen

Hardison racked up five RBIs, Zach Robosky had three, Spencer Brown had

two and Alex Johnston finished with one.

“They played their hearts out,” Dodgers’ Manager Mike Johnson said.

Before his son, Kyle, went to the mound, Kelsey Chase went two innings

and Luke Greiner threw for three innings.

The Braves used four pitchers. Mitchell Williams started, then Thomas

Koss, Thomas Dialynas and Wheatley.

The Braves went up, 11-9, after the first half of the eighth inning.

Rangell cracked a double to center to bring in Alex Ray and Austin Harms

popped a sacrifice fly to bring in Rangell.

The Dodgers, however, answered the challenge as Brown belted a two-run

double, bringing in Hardison and Chase.

In the ninth inning, the Braves tallied two more runs, both unearned

as Kyle Johnson grew frustrated with the umpire’s strike zone. There was

only one umpire for the entire game.

Hardison’s double in the bottom of the ninth brought in Tommy Folks

and Greiner to send the game to the 10th.